Border crossing Costa Rica – Nicaragua

Border crossing Costa Rica – Nicaragua

As I’m spending some months in Costa Rica, preparing for a new project, I wanted to have a first look at Nicaragua. I cannot be ziplining in Costa Rica every free moment… I heard Nicaragua has even more problems with plastic waste than Costa Rica. And I wanted to go and have a look for myself. A friend who just finished her assignment in Costa Rica was traveling that way as well. So we decided to travel as a team.

Liberia

From my temporary location in Costa Rica, we made it by bus to the city of Liberia. Different bus lines manage and operate from different locations. It’s all about finding out at what station the bus to your destination arrives. The bus operator between Playas del Coco and Liberia, Pulitman, has its stop 2 blocks away from the bus station to Nicaragua.

Taxi vendors at this station walked up to us, telling that the buses were not going, that it would take hours to have a bus and that the bus was very dirty. Guess what they were selling…

The bus to Penas Blancas, Nicaraguan border

Bus between Liberia and Penas Blanca, Nicaragua

Several companies operate towards Penas Blancas, the border crossing station. On most days you will not wait longer than an hour to catch the next bus. Seating is “first come, first served”. In an hour and a half, the bus makes it to the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua. If you’re as lucky as we were, it’ll start raining once you step on the bus, and it’ll end well before you arrive at the destination.

At the border station of Penas Blancas, the bus drops you amidst a group of women who sell the exit tax tickets. Each visitor leaving Costa Rica must have one of these. For US$8 each, we got our tickets from the most persistent sales person and started our way into Nicaragua. Don’t expect signs to guide you: finding your way and the right office is part of the experience.

No man’s land on the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua

Emigrating in Costa Rica is a piece of cake, once you have the exit tax paid, and filled in the exit form (oops, I go back to the end of the line after I fill in my form). Stamp in the passport, and we’re on our way to the next stop.

The restrooms in this no man’s land are known to be clean, so if you’re on your way to the border, and expect a wait there, here’s a tip: go here ;-)

A sort of rickshaw bikes operates in no man’s land, offering transport from one to the other border. The drivers offered the ride at $1 to $3 but we decided to walk the 500 meter. Just before leaving Costa Rica, the last Costa Rican policeman on this journey checks the stamp and waves you out. Before entering the customs zone of Nicaragua, a Nicaraguan officer had another look at the passport. And then, for the first time in many weeks, I see military uniforms again. Kind of a shock, coming from Costa Rica where the army is a thing of the past (since 1948.)

Taxi, taxi!

Taxi-sales-men, the only certainty in a tourist attraction anywhere on the planet. A young man approached us as soon as we came near the Nicaraguan checkpoint. The gentle but persistent man will show you to the next counter, and not over away further than 1 meter from you from here on. Getting rid of this newly made friend here is pretty close to impossible… But it allows you plenty of time to start showing him how much you are not willing to pay for the taxi, and how poor you are. (Yeah, and they will so believe that from the guy carrying a camera…)

The first stop at this side of the border is NOT the Nicaraguan border patrol as you would expect, but an office of the city that hosts this no man’s land at the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica. They charge a $1 city tax for using the area between the two countries…

No Man’s Land between Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

Entering Nicaragua

And so I finally reached the immigration officer in Nicaragua. Well-trained officers in the art of not smiling at all take your passport. Don’t try to swap passports between the borders of Costa Rica and Nicaragua: the officers searched for my stamp exiting showing the exit of Costa Rica, and when that wasn’t in the passport, they insisted on making me immigrate on the passport I exited Costa Rica on. having multiple passports on the trajectory between Nicaragua and Costa Rica includes planning ahead on what passport to use when entering Nicaragua.

So we made it out of the checkpoint after showing our passports once more. Our new best friend who followed us all the way trough the process introduced us to his friend with a taxi. It took walking away to lower the price to $20 to get from the border to San Juan. And our new best friend tried, in the end, to get the commission from us (no-go, of course)

And so, about an hour after we arrived at this side of the border, we were on our way to San Juan del Sur. Welcome in Nicaragua!

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About Koen Blanquart

Koen Blanquart is a traveling freelance photo journalist. In Boarding Today, he describes his adventures in travel and outdoor life. While Koen has his homebase in New York, he's feeling at home while traveling all over the planet. He lives as Digital Nomad most of the year.

Koen Blanquart

Koen Blanquart is a startup veteran whose mission is to help companies tap into the soul of corporate social responsibility. Through artistic projects around the world, such as photo and video documentaries, he helps companies highlight their CSR efforts and proactively show how their actions support their values. Whether he’s photographing grizzly bears in remote Alaska, riding on the trans-Siberian railway, or crewing a small sailboat in Antarctica, he brings an eco sensibility to his work, lives rough and captures pristine footage for clients’ projects.
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